Golden Butterflies and Silver Strings
by Feenie13
Summary: Sometimes the best way to prepare for the future is to give kids Personas. Spoilers for Persona 1, 2 and 3!
1. Chapter 1

I can't remember if it was specified if the Dark Hour spread only over Tatsumi Port Island or a certain amount of Earth, so for this fic, let's just say at least around Sumaru City is affected by it.

* * *

Maya swore it could only had been a day after she saw Tatsuya one more time. She swore it could only had been a day when Eriko had called her about an old friend having visited her and the Persona users from St. Hermelin when they had thought him dead ("We're all so happy to see him again! He hasn't changed a bit!"). She swore it was only a day after her just _barely_ keeping the end of the world happening a second time, just barely keeping from begging Philemon for another way for Tatsuya to stay with them...

She had stayed up late, feeling restless and slightly sick, Ulala worrying for her health, insisting she take some sort of medication to help her sleep, but Maya stubbornly shook her head.

"I just feel like something's about to go _horribly_ wrong, Artemis thinks the same, and nothing can be done about it...Ulala, how long has it been since we defeated Nyarlathotep?" Maya asked.

"I've lost track, but I know it's been at least a few days. Why? You don't think he'd seriously try something so soon after that, do you?" Ulala wondered.

"He's essentially a god, isn't he? He'd only need some time to recover..."

Ulala shook her head.

"Ma-Ya, this is unlike you. Are you sick or something?"

"No...I haven't done anything that could get me sick..."

At once, the lights flickered before going out. Maya and Ulala froze.

"...we paid the electric bill, right?"

"I'm pretty sure we did."

Maya slowly made her way over to the window and peeked outside before giving a muffled cry of surprise.

"Ulala! You need to see this!"

Ulala quickly walked over to the window, nearly tripping a few times, and looked outside. Power had gone out in at least the entire district, the sky was now a sickly green, the moon was bright yellow, and it seemed the ocean was a sea of blood.

"Ohhhh god...ohhhhhh goooood..." Ulala mumbled, stepping away from the window.

"T...That's what was going to happen...? What happened?" Maya wondered.

"I have _no_ clue...and frankly, I don't think I want to know what it might be..." Ulala answered.

"We defeated Nyarlathotep! Why is this happe-what is _that_?"

A dark blob had formed in the streets below, roaming aimlessly about. Was that some demon that they hadn't learned about before?

"...Ulala, I think we need to investigate. Now."

Ulala just nodded, and the two hurried to get outside, nearing the black blob.

"Is that some sort of demon? I thought they were all gone," Ulala pondered.

"Maybe this is part of the cause?" Maya guessed before approaching it. The thing, upon noticing her, immediately gave an angered sound and launched itself at her. The dark-haired woman immediately summoned Artemis and cast Bufudyne, managing to knock it backwards. Ulala hurried up to Maya's side.

"Looks like that thing wants to fight...alright! Let's just kill it, then! Come forth, Asteria!" Ulala commanded, summoning her ultimate Persona and launching a Garudyne at the creature. It didn't seem to mind that spell too much, and scratched at Maya. After her recent adventure, that didn't even hurt a little bit, considering what she had fought, and took the opportunity to draw her two pink guns and fire at the creature, which blocked them.

"Okay...no good on Wind or guns..."

"You still have those? I thought you put them away somewhere!"

"I didn't, okay? Try Dream Needle!"

Ulala nodded before unleashing the attack. That seemed to hit the thing hard enough to knock it down.

"Now for the finisher, Crescent Mirror!" Maya decided, raising her arm in a commanding gesture and watching the ice spell obliterate the blob of shadow. The two dismissed their Personae.

"...what was that? That was nothing like a demon..." Maya commented.

"I have no clue...maybe we should try getting some sleep?" Ulala suggested.

"Hm...I think we should. There's nothing we can really do here until we talk with Baofu and maybe Katsuya tomorrow."

Maya looked exhausted when she woke up the next morning, having woken up due to the phone ringing rather loudly. It clicked in her mind that the power was back on, and it seemed like a normal morning was starting in Sumaru City. Had that fight last night been nothing more than a dream?

"Hello?"

"Miss Amano?"

Maya blinked, trying to get the sleepiness out of her eyes. That was Kei on the line.

"Kei? What is it?"

"I wanted to know if you witnessed anything odd last night. I received some unsettling reports, and..." Kei broke off.

"...I did. The sky turned green, the moon turned yellow, the ocean looked like it was blood...Ulala and I fought this shadowy monster, even. I was starting to think it was a dream-"

"If what you said is right is true, it wasn't. And a portion of my company may be to blame."

"What? How is your group..." Maya began before stopping. Truth be told, she didn't even really know what the Nanjo Group did. All she knew was Kei was its heir.

"I'll explain once we gather the others and meet at Aoba Park," Kei responded before hanging up.

Later in the day, Maya, fully awake and properly dressed, arrived at Aoba Park with Ulala not far behind. Kei, Eriko and Baofu were there, although there was no Katsuya.

"Katsuya is...?" Maya asked.

"Busy. Someone was gravely injured last night," Kei informed.

"So there was more than one of those blob things...Kei, what the hell happened last night? What the hell caused everything to just change for an hour and make everything run out of power, then?" Ulala questioned.

"Let me explain. This is partially the fault of my company and a group that split from ours: the Kirijo Group. They had been researching the ideas of Shadows and how they could be used, and I wound up having to force them to split from the Nanjo Group last year. Last night seemed to the culmination of their experiments-no electrical thing worked last night during that hour, time did not seem to move forward, those monsters appeared...and something happened to a child's parents," Kei informed.

Maya's throat suddenly felt tight at the mention of something happening to a child's parents.

"What do you mean by that?" Baofu questioned, lightly frowning.

"The experiments that led to the happenings of last night seemed to have killed a young boy's parents. From what I've learned from reports, his name is Minato Arisato, he is six years old, he lives in Iwatodai, Tatsumi Port Island, and he seemed to have been injured and is being kept in a hospital run by the Kirijo Group until further notice," Kei informed.

A six year old, now an orphan. Maya shuddered-she was lucky to at least have her mom still alive when her father died.

"Jeez, poor kid. What'll happen to him?" Ulala questioned.

"Given what happened, if he was at all near what might have caused the death of his parents, experiments may be performed on him, and even if he doesn't have those tests performed, he will be sent to live with an able relative until further notice. I'd rather not let that group experiment on him..." Kei replied.

"How did you learn all this?" Maya asked, voice shaking a bit.

"I was lucky enough to have an insider within the group to gather information. What worries me is this hour that appeared...what are we going to do with it? Simply deal with it in Sumaru every night?" Kei pondered, frowning.

"...that's what I'm afraid we must do. We're the only Persona users to be in Sumaru City, and one person was harmed last night...we will have to defend it," Eriko decided.

"Agreed. We defended Sumaru once, we can do it again!" Maya agreed.

"Right, those things aren't even that tough! We can handle them!" Ulala commented, nodding.

"If they're that easy to beat...I think we'll be fine, then. We just can't let them get near humans," Baofu decided.

"So it's settled: we'll deal with this until an end has been found?" Eriko asked.

"Of course! We gotta think positively, guys! This couldn't go on forever, right?" Maya questioned, smiling.

 _10 years later..._

It was a rather lazy night at the school dorms in Iwatodai. Minato was sitting on a couch, listening to his MP3 player.

"Hey, Minato!"

Minato blinked, then removed his headphones and looked up. Junpei was standing over him, grinning.

"I just heard the coolest story about this town up north. People say rumors came true in the city once, along with a bunch of other stuff! Wanna hear it?"

Minato nodded.

"Sounds pretty interesting. What's the town called?"

Sitting next to Minato on the couch, Junpei began.

"From what I heard, it's called Sumaru City..."


	2. Chapter 2

It had been several weeks since Maya and her friends had discovered that mysterious hour, where those Shadows came out to play. The sky today was a drab shade of gray, a cold wind blowing throughout the city as a reminder winter was coming soon. Maya shuddered as a gust blew past her, the reporter and Ulala taking a walk around Sumaru to get some fresh air. After alerting Katsuya to this sudden occurrance, the three plus Baofu, Kei, and Eriko agreed to take turns each day (well, night) to keep the city safe. Tonight was Ulala's turn, last night having been Katsuya's turn.

"Do you think Little Suou would have known about Big Suou sneaking out last night?" Ulala asked Maya as they walked. "I mean, assuming he wasn't turned into one of those coffins..."

"I hope not. I feel bad for them, Tatsuya alone has had a really tough time of things..." Maya responded, shrugging weakly.

"I'll say. Almost seems like Nyarlathotep is desperate to have something happen to them, given that last little 'adventure' and now this. Do you think he could have manipulated those scientists?" Ulala remarked.

Maya hesitated before nodding. "Kei said the scientists had broken off from the Nanjo Group some time before we even knew about Tatsuya's situation. Maybe it happened in that other timeline thing too..."

"Maybe. I don't suppose it would be worth trying to get to Philemon again to ask?" Ulala asked, jokingly, before she added, "Maybe it only happened in this timeline, because Nyarlathotep wanted a safety net to cause trouble in the event he got his ass handed to him this time around."

Maya didn't respond at first, recalling the child Kei had mentioned. Minato Arisato...the timing between him having the accident and Nyarlathotep getting beaten up by Maya's group seemed almost uncanny. Maybe Ulala was right...did that mean the poor child would wind up suffering like Tatsuya did?

"Ma-Ya?" Ulala asked, looking at her in concern. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine, Ulala..." Maya responded, shakily. The idea of another person suffering because of _him_ was upsetting. There had been enough trouble without another kid or two getting mixed up in another mess!

"Ma-Ya, you look like you're sick. Let's look for a place to sit down for a while, alright?" Ulala asked. Maya nodded weakly. The women looked around briefly before they realized they were near Araya Shrine, a small boy with blue hair looking up at the shrine in curiosity, and an older man with black hair with a pierced ear looking on carefully. Another boy with black hair, who looked younger than the blue-haired child, was sitting on a bench, huddled up in a jacket.

"Hey, isn't that the guy Eriko was talking about?" Ulala asked Maya. "She said her friend had a pierced ear. Is that him?"

"Maybe! Let's go and see," Maya responded. The two approached the shrine, and the man with the pierced ear was the first to notice them. He didn't immediately greet them, unsure of who they were, until he gave a quiet "ah!" when he realized who was approaching the shrine. The older boy was still looking up at the shrine, the younger boy looking at the women in curiosity.

"You two are Maya Amano and Ulala Serizawa, right? Eriko and Kei told me about you and your friends. I'm Naoya Toudou," the man greeted.

"It's nice to meet you, Naoya! I guess you kind of know what's been going on in Sumaru?" Maya asked.

Naoya nodded, sighing. "I wish I could've been here to help. I knew _something_ was going on, considering Kandori's Persona went nuts when we fought him, but...I'm sorry you guys had to go through that."

"Hey, it's over with, we're just protecting the city now," Ulala replied, shrugging. "It's almost like we're guardian deities for Sumaru, or something like that..."

"I think a better term would be 'super heroes'..." Maya pointed out before asking, "Are those kids yours?"

"Well, the older kid is sort of a cousin, if that's what you mean. Minato?" Naoya called, and Maya and Ulala's hearts sank. The boy with blue hair seemed to finally notice the two Persona users, and ducked behind Naoya in response.

"...Minato? As in, Minato Arisato?" Maya quietly asked.

"Yeah. Minato, do you want to say hi?" Naoya asked the boy cowering behind him. Minato shook his head, looking at the ground.

"He's staying with you, then?" Ulala guessed.

"Until the Nanjo Group can find a family member willing to take him in, pretty much. I don't blame him for being so shy," Naoya responded. "The other kid, by the way, is Hiro Kuze. His parents asked me to babysit while they were out of town for the day."

Maya look at Minato, then at Hiro, for a few moments, an idea forming in her head. If it was true Nyarlathotep might have manipulated the Kirijo Group into those experiments, and Minato was possibly doomed for some sort of trouble...

"...hey, Naoya? You know about the Persona game, right?" Maya asked.

"Yes, of course," Naoya answered before looking at Maya with a serious expression. "...are you suggesting..."

"I know we probably shouldn't, but...if _he_ might be planning to make his life as bad as Tatsuya's, maybe it wouldn't help to give him a little boost in the form of a Persona?" Maya suggested.

"Will it work, though? The three of us have Personas, he doesn't...we would need at least two other children, and I don't think the sight of three grown adults trying to round up children to play the Persona game is exactly a sight parents want to see," Naoya pointed out.

"I know, but...hm, it's worth a try, isn't it?" Maya asked.

"Maybe..." Naoya looked at Minato. "Minato, Hiro, do you want to learn a game?"

"...w-what kind of game?" Minato asked, looking up at his cousin/caretaker. Hiro only responded by getting off the bench and approaching the four, looking even more curious than he did before.

"It's called the Persona game, and here is how you play..."

 _10 years later..._

Junpei was telling the rumor about Sumaru City to the rest of SEES the following evening, Minato simply listening. Mitsuru seemed uncomfortable at the mention of Sumaru City, Yukari couldn't help but listen intently, Ken and Koromaru were listening with wide eyes, Aigis barely looked interested, and Akihiko and Fuuka were too busy with homework to properly pay attention. Shinji was...wherever he did this late in the day, presumably. Ikutsuki had overheard the story about halfway through, and decided to listen to it himself.

"That's quite a tale," the chairman remarked as Junpei finished. "Where did you hear all of that?"

"Some kids at the school. Apparently they took a trip to Sumaru over break, and heard the rumor from some girl working at the nearby detective agency," Junpei answered.

"It kind of sounds like an interesting place," Yukari admitted. "Maybe the next time we time off from school, assuming we don't need to worry about Tartarus for a while, we could go there?"

"Perhaps," Mitsuru answered, "but I wouldn't count on it. Sumaru is a ways away from Port Island, and we won't know what might happen by the next break we have."

Junpei tried to plead his case with Mitsuru, pleading for the possibility of visiting another town rumored to have had robots and monsters running around in the past, until Minato finally stood up and said, "I'm heading out for a quick walk before the Dark Hour."

Minato strolled by the school on his walk, his thoughts wandering. It was getting close to the next full moon, he hoped they were just a few floors below the next barrier...

Minato suddenly came to a halt, noticing a blue butterfly flutter around him. He couldn't help but give a small smile upon recognizing the butterfly. In hindsight, he probably should have told Junpei earlier that he was well aware of Sumaru's rumors; Minato had visited the town when he was a kid, after all. He still remembered Naoya teaching him the Persona game, the other adults trying to explain what he would see upon completing the game, the other kid sharing a confused look with him before they decided to give it a try.

The result was the two of them winding up in that other place, the man with the butterfly mask allowing them to see their Personas, Orpheus and Arsène. "You do not need them for a while yet, I assure you," he informed, noticing the awe in their eyes.

The butterfly's color briefly flickered to gold, then back to blue, as if in response to Minato recalling that fateful day. The Wild Card held out a finger for the butterfly to perch on.

"It's been a while, Philemon."


End file.
